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Surface Mount Assembly Electronic Adhesives Market Set to Grow

4th December 2015

As compact and miniaturised electronic devices rise in importance year by year, so will the demand for surface mount assembly electronic adhesives. Adhesives are the fundamental building blocks of the electronics industry. They are used to bond the components and specialised coating material and wire tacks of an assembly on to a printed circuit board.

Whereas once a typical printed circuit board only held components on one side and had holes drilled through the board, the development of surface mount assembly technology since the 1980s means that components today are soldered directly only to the board.

The main adhesives in use are mostly organic (i.e. carbon-based) and are used to bond the various components in a surface mount assembly, for wire tacking, for encapsulating and for potting electronic components - methods of reinforcing for final assembly and of filling in any voids on the circuit board - and for circuit board conformal coating.

Globally, the market for electronic adhesives was estimated at $3.28 billion in 2014. Miniaturisation is expected to be a major driver of the sector's growth over the coming years. Some of the applications will be used for electronic data processing devices that include smart cards, lighting and displays using LED lights as well as OLEDs

However, growth in this sector could be hindered by the costs incurred during product assembly, especially in areas such as packaging and laminating. But these could be offset by expected growth in the demand for devices such as chemical detectors, flexible sensors and specialised imaging devices used in the security industry. But the market for conformal coatings is expected to stagnate. Over 2014 it accounted for just 24% of the total electronic adhesives market. Nevertheless, there is still a high demand for printed circuit board corrosion protection, and this could become an important factor in boosting the market.

Surface mount assembly applications for electronic adhesives generated earnings of $1.329 billion globally over 2014. Growth in this sector is expected to focus on Europe and the Asia Pacific region. Markets in the Middle East and Africa as well as North America are expected to stagnate due to declining demand. There could be some particular growth in the Central and South American market if new government policies focused on boosting the electronics sector are adopted.